So we’re drifting slowly down I-5 on our way to check out some dishwashers, okay? Traffic is bad, the sun is baking everything and everyone. (Come to think on it, that might explain this episode.) The wife and I are up front, the kids are on the back-back bench seat. The A/C is cranked.

We approach the Portland temple. Mormon, that is. “Hey, kids, it’s the temple.” No sooner are the words out of my mouth than we pull up alongside a massive tractor-trailer rig. “Oooo, it’s so big and white!” Giggles from the back seat. Silly grin from the driver. “I didn’t know it was so huge, it fills the entire view all the way up to the sky!” Laughter fills the mini-van.

Traffic shifts, and now we’re alongside the tractor instead of the trailer. “Hey, wow, now it’s PURPLE!” More delight. “I wonder what you call a purple temple. The Purple Tabernacle?”

Attempts to say “purple tabernacle” three times fast fail. To be honest, attempts to say it once fail often, and attempts to say it twice simply cause more laughter. As the laughter dies down and Alex sips water to deal with his hiccups, I jot down two words on my Kyocera so I’ll remember to write up a journal entry…

This is how I keep my family amused. The family that laughs together, stays together.

At 10:30am, 15 August 1992 our son Alexander Frederick Kerezman came into the world.

Ten years later, Alex (a.k.a. “the Spud”) is a healthy, smart little computer gamer and budding golf enthusiast with a clever wit and good manners. Well, sometimes “wit” and “manners” clash just a little, but nobody’s perfect. If we can get him to relax a bit more and learn to truly enjoy life, I think he’ll grow up to be one heck of a neat person.

Happy Birthday, son. I love you.

I like my job, yes, but that’s not the reason I want to stay at work for the next few days. You see, Portland’s experiencing something of a one-week heatwave, and I want no part of it. I absolutely wilt in 90+ temperatures. Our house becomes a kind of sauna, or perhaps the term is ‘blast furnace.’ From mid-afternoon all the way until well past midnight, our abode is unbearable.

My office, on the other hand, is tiny but it has air conditioning. Mmmm. I love being cool and comfy. Too bad I don’t have a stockpile of food or a nice place to sleep.

Oh well. I should just suck it up and be miserable with the rest of my family. It wouldn’t be fair to them anyway, now would it?